and over the roof there is the image of an eagle made
of stone--no small marvel, but a great one, how men came to fashion him;
and that temple is called the House of Queens. Here they sacrifice a
boar once every year; and concerning this they tell a certain sacred
story which I know but will not utter.

Then I was brought to the priest who had a name for knowing most about
Egypt, and the Egyptians, and the Assyrians, and the Cappadocians, and
all the kingdoms of the Great King. He came out to me, being attired in
a black robe, and wearing on his head a square cap. But why the
priests have square caps I know, and he who has been initiated into
the mysteries which they call 'Matric' knows, but I prefer not to tell.
Concerning the square cap, then, let this be sufficient. Now, the priest
received me courteously, and when I asked him, concerning Herodotus,
whether he were a true man or not, he smiled, and answered 'Abu Goosh,'
which, in the tongue of the Arabians, means 'The Father of Liars.' Then
he went on to speak concerning Herodotus, and he said in his discourse
that Herodotus not only told the thing which was not, but that he did so
wilfully, as one knowing the truth but concealing it. For example, quoth
he, 'Solon never went to see Croesus, as Herodotus avers; nor did those
about Xerxes ever dream dreams; but Herodotus, out of his abundant
wickedness, invented these things.

'Now behold,' he went on, 'how the curse of the Gods falls upon
Herodotus. For he pretends that he saw Cadmeian inscriptions at Thebes.
Now I do not believe there were any Cadmeian inscriptions there:
therefore Herodotus is most manifestly lying. Moreover, this Herodotus
never speaks of Sophocles the Athenian, and why not? Because he, being a
child at school, did not learn Sophocles by heart: for the tragedies
of Sophocles could not have been learned at school before they were
written, nor can any man quote a poet whom he never learned at school.
Moreover, as all those about Herodotus knew Sophocles well, he could
not appear to them to be learned by showing that he knew what they knew
also.' Then I thought the priest was making game and sport, saying first
that Herodotus could know no poet whom he had not learned at school,
and then saying that all the men of his time well knew this poet, 'about
whom everyone was talking'. But the priest seemed not to know that
Herodotus and Sophocles were friends, which is proved by this, that
Sophocles wrote a